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World Wide Rave

I was lucky to attend a webinar some time ago, where the author introduced the book. The webinar was very interesting and the book exceeded my expectations (even after reading other works of the author). The most inspiring part of the book, I think, is the wealth of examples from different industries, different target audiences, and unique approaches. These examples encourage the reader to think what can be done for the reader’s business…

My notes from the book:

World Wide Rave – positive reaction to something related to the company or its productWorld Wide Rant – negative reaction to something related to the company or its product

No coercion required. If you create something worth sharing, people will share it.

Lose control.Valuable online information should be free and easy to share.

Put down roots.If you want your ideas to spread, you need to be involved in the online communities of people who actively share.

Create triggers that encourage people to share. The success of certain content is impossible to predict – create enough “possibilities” for the World Wide Rave – think as venture capitalist

Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep.Producing interesting content is better approach to SEO than technically optimizing site with boring content.

Other recommendations:

What slightly subversive (but not illegal or unethical) strategies, like encouraging people to use their mobile phones in a place where it is not normally allowed, can you use to trigger a World wide Rave?

Never talk about your products and services again. Instead, focus on your buyer personas and how you can solve problems for them.

How can you push the envelope of what’s tried and true in your market? The sex angle certainly isn’t for everyone, but are there other subjects you could incorporate in your efforts that others are too scared to talk about?

You’ve got to think in terms of spreading ideas, not generating leads. A World wide Rave gets the world out to thousands or even millions of potential customers. But only if you make your content easy to find and consume.

Every company has something fascinating or unique or funny that can be turned into a video that people will want to share. You do, too. What’s that one thing that everyone who knows you comments about? Build you video efforts around that.

Facebook applications are all about providing an interesting way for friends to connect and share valuable information. Your business probably lends itself to a entertaining or useful application, too.

Create a team and a process in advance and get internal preapprovals in place so that when a new trend breaks, you can respond very quickly. If you work for a nimble organization, and instant response to something in the news, a reaction to a change in regulations, or a clever piggyback off somebody else’s World wide Rave can be both fun and rewarding.

What proprietary data and metrics do you have that would be valuable to others? Publish them an offer them for free to generate a World Wide Rave.

Take a look at your site and find a link you can flip around. Measure the traffic before and after the switch and see which version works better. Perhaps your site includes a headline like this: “How to increase productivity and drive revenue.” Yawn. How many times have we all read something like that? How about this: “How to destabilize productivity, deter customers, and diminish revenue.” Now that’s likely to get some attention!

Great book!! Highly recommend!! My guess it is already required in some university… 😉